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Van der Lee Seafish

Facts and figures

Refrigerant	CO2
Capacity	500kW at -43°C
System	CO2 / NH3 cascade system, pump circulation
Duration of the project:	2.5 months, of which 3.5 weeks switchover

Until recently Van der Lee Seafish in Urk had a large R22 installation, built in 1987, used mainly for freezing flatfish. Cofely Refrigeration converted most of the installation into a system using NH₃/CO_2. About 1/3 of the refrigeration requirements are still provided by the R22 installation.

NH₃/CO₂ installation under construction

The R22 installation, a large pump system, provided the cold for, among other things, a belt freezer and six line freezers. These freezers are an important part of the production line. The familiar problem with conversion jobs like this is that the production line cannot be taken out of operation for long and that replacing production equipment such as the belt freezers is costly.

Modification of existing line freezers
For this reason the existing line freezers were modified by Cofely so that they can work with the natural refrigerant CO₂. The belt freezer was replaced by an advanced air injection freezer (produced by: Cofely). Also, the R22 installation was partly dismantled and, among other things, a compressor was re-used in the ammonia part of the NH₃/CO₂ installation.

Cofely air injection freezer

What is the benefit of this solution?
The reason for converting the existing installation is not only the phasing out of R22, but above all the energy saving, which constitutes an economic benefit. This argument applies much less for the remainder of the R22 installation. For Van der Lee reason enough to hold off on converting the rest of the installation to CO₂. However, a good basis has been laid for the future. By choosing CO₂ in combination with ammonia, clearly a sustainable solution has been chosen at least for the next twenty years.